Understanding the Global Food Crisis
The world faces an ongoing global food crisis, leaving many families suffering from devastating food insecurity — not having enough nutritious food to eat. Based on recent data, 645 million people globally, including children, faced hunger in 2025 alone. Sadly, most of those people live in Africa, where 309 million suffer from hunger.
There are many causes of hunger in Africa, including extreme poverty, conflict and natural disasters. In this video, you’ll see how severe famine and drought destroyed a Zambian family’s livelihood, leaving them without the resources to pay for nutritious meals.
Hunger in Zambia: Facts & Impact
Zambia is a country within sub-Saharan Africa which has the highest poverty rate in the world. This high level of poverty, combined with crises like disasters, leaves many Zambians hungry. Recent data (at the time of writing) shows that 698,000 people in Zambia are facing acute food insecurity, and about 37% of the entire population — over 8 million — suffer from undernourishment.
Hunger can lead to devastating effects, especially for children. For example, chronic hunger leads to child malnutrition, which places children at a higher risk of infections, disease and even death. In this video, you’ll explore the impact of hunger in Zambia.
How Compassion Fights Hunger in Zambia
At Compassion, we fight back against hunger in Zambia by partnering with local churches to deliver nutrition support and other critical care to children and families in need. While care looks different based on individual and community needs, examples of support include:
Malnutrition monitoring and intervention: Church partners are trained to recognize the signs of malnutrition and take action, providing access to meals, vitamin supplements and even therapeutic feeding if required.
Caregiver training: Caregivers are trained on proper nutrition and how to prepare nutritious meals with the resources they have in their homes.
Emergency food packs: Families receive emergency food packs filled with staples like rice, eggs, meat, milk and corn, equipping them with nutritious meals and helping prevent malnutrition.
Medical care: For children suffering from the effects of malnutrition, such as chronic illness or disease, we deliver medical care to help them heal.
Income generation opportunities: Caregivers are equipped with the tools they need to generate sustainable income, such as training and supplies. Families can learn how to raise animals like goats and chickens, grow vegetables and more.
In this video, you’ll see Compassion’s work in Zambia in action by exploring how one real family is using this support to provide for their needs and move beyond poverty.